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Sunday, October 29, 2017

Poision Beauty

We listened to music, read the paper, and sipped our coffee this morning. Yesterday was fun, but we put a lot into these gatherings, and we were both pretty much worthless this morning.

After coffee, we decided to take the dogs for a walk. We called our niece Samantha to see if she wanted to join us and she did.

It was chilly with a stiff wind out of the north. I walked the first lap in a tee shirt, but I detoured inside and put on a sweatshirt for the second lap.

a crimson color caught my eye and I stepped over to investigate. It was Virginia Creeper climbing a poplar tree. I snapped a picture. Samantha was interested and stepped over too and I told her touching the vine would be unwise.

It's interesting that some of Mother Nature's most beautiful plants are not human-friendly.

I posted the picture on Facebook and someone corrected me and said that it was Virginia Creeper. When I Googled it, they were right. Poison Ivy has only 3 leaves. I thought I knew my plants. But, Virginia Creeper is also toxic to some people. Like Poison Ivy, it can cause a severe skin rash including small blisters. I'm not sure about the stem but I assume that it's toxic too.

Somewhere along the line I heard the phrase, "Leaves of three, let it be."I have become a little more allergic to poison ivy over the years, but I don't have a problem with Virginia creeper. There is some growing on my chain link fence. The Japanese beetles seem to love my Virginia creeper.Some specimens do have a great red fall color.

It sure is a pretty plant. I wonder if they suffocate the tree after many years of growth. Jewel weed are a great weed to have around to neutralize the toxin of poison oak or poison ivy and I imagine it would be good also for Virginia Creeper.Hugs, Julia

Beautiful colour to a vine I will never want to be near. It sounds similar to poison ivy and poison oak which I got back in 1987. It covered my entire body, my one eye swelled shut and my body swelled up. I needed an adrenaline shot and I took ice cold baths with ice cubes in it to calm to severe itch.

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About Me

I am an award-winning writer who often uses humor to paint pictures of life situations. "My goal is to leave the reader smiling." I write books as well as newspaper and magazine columns.I am also singer/songwriter who writes and performs folk/Americana music at festivals and coffee houses across the south.

My three non-fiction books are Life Changes, Life Happens which was released in September of 2012, and Remembering Big which I released in 2008.The release date for book four, Life Goes On, is scheduled for the summer of 2016.